Hospital peer review
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hospital peer review is the evaluation of a physician's performance or an investigation into an undesired outcome in a medical procedure conducted within a hospital or medical group. Usually peer review involves a panel of reviewers in the same geographic area and in the same specialty.
Peer review is part of the Health Care Quality Improvement Act passed by Congress in 1986. The law establishes a framework for discreetly investigating a physician's performance to assure that he's meeting accepted standards of care.
Several factors impact peer review and have a chilling effect on doctors without improving the quality of care for patients. Many articles in the press have shown doctors subjected to peer review because of being outsiders in their organizations, challenging their institutions and recommending improvements for patient care to their institution. In addition, peer review panels are oftentimes competitors of the doctor being reviewed. In smaller institutions, it's difficult to even find a doctor with the same subspeciality. For this reason, many hospitals are turning to third parties, like independent review organizations, to conduct peer reviews in an unbiased way.
[edit] References
- Peer Review Evaluation of a physician's performance by other physicians, usually within the same geographic area and medical specialty.
- Best Practices in Hospital Peer Review Whitepaper (pdf)
- History of Hospital Peer Review
[edit] External links
- AllMed Healthcare Management A Independent Medical Review and Hospital Peer Review Company.
- Imedecs
- Peerreview.org, for examples of peer reviews having negative impacts on doctors.
